Evansdale, IA

Deerwood Park

3.215(based on 14 reviews)
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7 0
knobby325
Gold level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 9.3 years 335 played 252 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Buggy and busy 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 29, 2021 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

-Concrete tees
-Multiple tees / multiple basket locations
-Good mix of open / wooded, long / short
-Baskets catch OK
-Multiple lines on many holes
-Good use of terrain with a couple of elevated baskets and one with a sharp right turn at the end and down
-Handmade wood signage is OK
-Finding the course is easy / plentiful parking
-Many benches / trashcans

Cons:

-Older DGA baskets tough to see at times
-Map would help knowing where to throw at times
-Near a river, gets extremely buggy
-Can be extremely busy at times

Other Thoughts:

Deerwood Park DGA is located near the Cedar River on the SW corner of Evansdale, IA. A very easy course to get to means a popular place on a nice afternoon or weekend. Being near the river means a lot of bugs (I had no bug repellent the first time here and was chased after 9 holes). The rest of my quibbles are minor. While I applaud whomever created the carved wood signage, an updated set of signs would add, along with a map. The older baskets can be tough to see in the wooded areas. Tee pads are nice, concrete, good length, and the alternates do give a differing line to many of the baskets, not just a shorter throw. You are open for a few holes (#1, 10, 11, 18), mixed for a few (#2, 12, 16 - all 3 begin open to a wooded finish), and wooded for the rest. There are a couple of holes (#3, 13) the are a little too guarded by trees, more luck than skill slipping a birdie in here. Benches and trash cans are plentiful, so there are places to wait out slow groups. You can't really fix the traffic or the bugs, but updated signage, a basket refresh would add here. I would put this at the middle of the pack of the courses in the area. I will probably play here again.
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3 0
Mhageman4
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 10.5 years 42 played 41 reviews
3.50 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Jul 20, 2020 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Fun 18 hole course with a variety of both long open shots and some very narrow technical in the woods shots. Dual tee pads for each of the 18 baskets.

Good mixture of in the woods shots and open park shots.

Most tees have tees have proper signs and distance posted.

Very well thought out with great signage use.

Seem to have a few tournaments every year there as well.

Cons:

I would definitely bring bug spray... I made it through hole two before heading back to the car and carrying a can in my bag with me.

Can get very crowded on nice nights.

Other Thoughts:

Great fun course right off the highway 20. Some baskets are easier if you walk the course first to actually see where you are aiming. It isn't a great course for beginners, but fun for people who have developed a nice shot selection in their arsenal.
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1 0
mgcoleman
Experience: 19.5 years 20 played 17 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Fun course, KUDOS to designer 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 24, 2019 Played the course:once

Pros:

- Extremely easy to get to (right off interstate)
- Concrete pads
- Good signage
- Excellent use of elevation changes
- Most holes provide multiple lines
- Pro/am pads on most (maybe all) holes
- Good baskets
- Several elevated tees and baskets - always a cool change of pace
- Mix of wooded and open holes.

Cons:

- The usual "lots of slobs obviously playing here based on the trash on the course" comment (we ran into an older gent who was headed out with his can grabber and a trash bag, so I bet he was going to solve part of the problem - good on him!)

Other Thoughts:

Once the round was over, I was struck by how fun it was given the compact footprint of the course. It really is a very solid course where it feels like they maximized what they had available without creating any obvious conflicts between holes. Well done to the designer(s) and those who have maintained it.
If you find yourself in the Waterloo area or just zipping along I-380, this is worth the stop.
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2 0
BriMar
Experience: 10.4 years 30 played 17 reviews
3.00 star(s)

A Lot of Course Crammed Into A Little Space 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 18, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

Pros:
-18 Holes, many quite challenging with a few elevated
- Concrete tees
- Mostly wooded
- 2 Tees for each fairway (one for pros and one for the rest of us)

Cons:

Cons:
- Part runs close to and along a busy highway, so it's not quite as immersive as other wooded courses
- Fairways are packed into each other like sardines leading to lots of confusion on my first attempt to play
- Maps arn't 100% clear at tees and often you can't see the baskets which adds to the confusion.

Other Thoughts:

This course was made by some mad genius, mad that he squeezed so much into so small a space...genius because it kinda works. Note: I went in the late fall and most of the leaves where down. Being my first time on the course it often baffled me where I was trying to aim my disk since the lines of the fairways (so rail close to each other) had blown away with the fall winds. Another problem was many of the baskets aren't visible from the tees, so it seems that it will take a few times to fully understand, appreciate, and master this demon course. Really liked the effort of the raised baskets on at least three holes to compensate for the lake of hills.

If your looking for this course, it's pretty easy to find, right off HWY 20 on the south east tip of Waterloo. The course itself is one of the first thing you should see on the left as you enter the the park, squeezed between a softball field and the highway.
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6 0
Nemmers
Silver level trusted reviewer
Experience: 11.3 years 89 played 33 reviews
3.00 star(s)

A diamond in the Evansdale rough 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Dec 24, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

- Location! Set right off the highway heading into or out of Waterloo, Deerwood couldn't be better placed for traveling golfers jonesing for a game with very little time on their hands and no GPS to speak of. You can literally see the baskets from the highway. A great stop and throw spot.

- Good teepads. All concrete, these pads provide really decent grip even in the slosh and snow that Iowa winters can sometimes deliver.

- Forgiving baskets. Although they seem to be old Mach IIs with a penchant for juryrigging, these baskets catch pretty well as long as you're at least marginally close to the intended target.

- Good use of space. Settled along the highway and nestled into a rarely-used parcel of land, this course seems to have been destined for a disc golf. There's open shots, tight lines in the woodlands, and even some elevation changes that add an extra bit of thought to your shots.

- Sweet layout. The play is fairly straightforward in that the next hole is relatively obvious. After you're done with #1, it's pretty easy to find #2 and so on. Not much ambiguity to this course. The dual tees provide some challenge too in that it's long enough (playing pro tees) to give experienced players a run for their money, but short enough (playing amateur tees) for beginners to keep them interested without frustrating them to tears.

- Amenities available. Casey's is just right across the street in case you wanted a bite to eat or a fashionable adult beverage before or after or during your round.

Cons:

- Dirty. Not too many trash cans available at Deerwood, which obviously contributes to the garbage littered throughout the course. A few placed hither and thither might encourage golfers to deposit their refuse there rather than the fairway. Just sayin'. And it's not just a few cans left behind as an afterthought; it's literally Mount Trashmore at the gazebo that shrouds the starting point. If local players put in a little effort in clean up this would be an extremely attractive course for traveling chuckers, but as of this writing it could use a good walk-through with trash bags.

- Ambiguous signage. I know I said that it's a fairly straightforward course, but the problem lies elsewhere. The problem is that there's really no indication of where one is supposed to start. A little sign in the obtuse parking area would go a long way in helping people navigate the course.

- No topless Hooters girls frolicking along the #8 fairway.

Other Thoughts:

All in all, Deerwood DGC is an awesome benefit to Evansdale and the Cedar Valley at large. It really does offer everything a disc golfer is looking for, regardless of skill level. If you're short on time and want a diet, watered-down, gluten-free version of Exchange Park but more of a challenge than the KOA or Valley View, Deerwood is your man.

In short, Deerwood is good local disc golf. It's not a destination course, but if you're on your way somewhere you could do a lot worse than this. It probably won't end up in your favorites, but I'd be a happy man to have a course like Deerwood in my hometown. Good stuff.
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2 1
Chris_cldg
Experience: 17.6 years 19 played 5 reviews
4.00 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 26, 2014 Played the course:once

Pros:

Great course located just east of Waterloo.

- technical
- good layout
- mostly wooded with a handful of open holes
- some moderate elevation
- short & long tees
- tees are in good condition (several were replaced spring 2014)
- nice baskets
- clean
- decently scenic
- lots of local involvement
- nice shelter
- located right off highway

When it's all cleaned up and bug free, it really is a fantastic course.

Cons:

- bugs can make it unbearable to play at times
- city can be bad about mowing
- could be better marked for unfamiliar players
- shared parking with softball diamond, can get crowded during the summer

Other Thoughts:

Bad flood spring 2014 destroyed a lot of the landscaping and left the course over-run for most of the summer, relief work has slowly continued to be done since
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4 0
namar
Experience: 27.4 years 46 played 8 reviews
3.50 star(s)

keeps me coming back 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 2, 2014 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

*Carved/ painted wooden signs at the short tees showing distances and general hole layout and an arrow indicating next tee
*Variety in both shot type and distance, including a couple ace runs and one hilltop bomber
*Plenty of risk/reward situations to analyze
*Hole 9 finishes right next to the parking area for easy refilling on whatever you need, and a gas station is a 3 minute walk up the road
*Dual tee pads provide approachable fun for various skill levels, all are level concrete and of a decent size
*A bunch of newer benches and trashcans located about every other hole
*Other than hole 10 which plays near the softball field and overflow parking which may spill near or onto 1's fairway, there are no real safety/interference issues with respect to other park users

Cons:

*No water hazards
*Signage at long pads just shows hole# and distance
*A few fairways play fairly close together
*The new concrete short tee pads are nearly devoid of texture, and will be slick when wet
*Parking is shared with a softball diamond, which can fill up during the summer and overflow onto part of #1's fairway

Other Thoughts:

Each hole at Deerwood has short and long tees, all concrete as of this spring, which both play to a common basket. Roughly half of the long tees result in stretched-out versions of the short lines and create only slight increases in difficulty, while others require much higher drive precision and/or completely different shots than you need from the shorts. Overall there is a good balance between completely wooded holes and those where you need to accurately throw into or out of wooded areas, with a couple of wide-open bombers mixed in. There are also a number of "local lines" that are available to the creative DG'er if you look at the trees with the right kind of eyes. Nothing physically taxing here, other than a couple small hill climbs. The course plays about 1.2 miles long and I can get through a casual solo round in about an hour without hurrying.

The topography is generally flat with some small hills, but what little elevation there is has been well utilized. Hole 18 is an obvious example of this, while other holes present a basket below or up on a small protected hillside, or have you teeing off from below a small rise to add that little extra bit of difficulty. #14 short has been recently changed to a very miniature across-the-valley shot, where you shoot from the top of a small hill across not even 200ft of open space to a basket on top of another small hill. A cool improvement and a nice shot to find on a short layout.

Fairways are generally pretty open, but a few nice tunnel shots are present (3 short, 5 long, 8 long, 13 either tee, 14 long). Get off the fairway, though, and you can find yourself in anything from long grass and scattered saplings to full-on jail, with the toughest rough often in play on the harder holes. Like most wooded courses, you'll encounter a shot or two that requires nearly equal parts skill and luck, but not nearly to the point of being unfair. A few holes do let you truly air out a drive, and #18 is the best of them. You tee from the top of a dike, which rises perhaps 40ft above the field of play to a basket 550' away with plenty of fairway width to accommodate all but the most errant drives. An OB road runs along your left the whole way, though, so watch that crosswind.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that this is my home course. There are a couple other nearby courses that I like better (Exchange Park is ~15 minutes away, Wildcat Bluff is ~35 minutes) but I'm about 7 minutes from Deerwood and that includes a beer stop. I've been playing here regularly for 5+ years and it remains hard enough to keep me engaged while staying fun enough to keep me coming back, and shooting par from the long pads feels like a good round with a little room for improvement. The course is right next to (and visible from) Hwy 20 at the River Forest Road exit, so if you are passing by and only have an hour or two to throw, Deerwood is your best option in the area.

*local tip - toss your empty cans/bottles on the ground next to the trash cans instead of in. a couple can-collecting dbags like to dump out the garbage to get at the redeemables and leave the trash on the ground.

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4 0
Iowa420DG
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 13.7 years 457 played 41 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Popular, Underrated, Fun 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Sep 30, 2012 Played the course:once

Pros:

Overall score; 3.4

Tee pads (3/5); Rough, gravel tee pads provided good traction. Some tee pads seemed a little too short, however. Pro and Amateur tee pads allow for two different levels of challenge.

Baskets (3/5); The baskets were old Mach 3's. Silver/gray in color, with a piece of orange tape that's supposed to help. At times, they were difficult to spot among the background of heavy woods. The baskets seemed to be in good conditions, and chains caught well despite aging. They were also numbered, which helps to clear up any tee-basket confusion.

Layout/Design (4/5); The design of the course was very fun. The tree placement and unique fairways provided a large variety of shots that the course would've otherwise lacked. There's hardly any elevation and no water hazards. A couple holes intersect a little too much, creating a slight "FORE!" hazard. Each hole has an easily identifiable fairway, whether its extremely tight or wide, its easily identifiable. Tee signs note pro or am and show a picture of the hole, distance, and number. Next tee signs could definitely help navigation! Thankfully, the park was packed, so I was able to follow other groups.

Scenery/Surroundings (2/5); Like I said, the park was packed. I don't know if this is usual, but the course appears to be very popular in the Waterloo area. A group of 10 was playing, but they allowed me to play through as soon as I caught up. No eye-popping views, but the fall colors make this course very pretty in October. I didn't notice any trash cans, benches, or other amenities. I did, however, notice the resulting amount of trash. Not terrible, but not good at all.

Likeliness to Return (5/5); This course is extremely easy to find. I didn't have an address for my GPS, but I spotted the course immediately after taking the Evansdale exit off I-380. I had a surprising amount of fun, and I felt good after playing. This is a great place to work on my finesse game. I feel that this course cares about disc golf. There's just a true sense of what disc golf is supposed to be about in the atmosphere. It's hard to describe, perhaps you will experience it for yourself!

Cons:

^^Read above^^
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2 1
troyrugg
Experience: 14.4 years 109 played 10 reviews
3.00 star(s)

my toughest course in town 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:May 30, 2012 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

all types of shots required here, lefts rts, straights and distance.
lots of obstacles on this course namely trees, also a con for beginners though.
rt off hyw 380/20 for quick access to those passing thru

Cons:

tees could be better, some missing pars or signage. again beginners may find all trees to be a bit much.
not much elevation change
buggy but to be expected with amount of trees and river in the area

Other Thoughts:

as ive only been playing for 2 yrs this is my hardest course in town. not being able to throw distance and having to lay up more is hard for me still and this course demands you do so. still a great course and one that will always be fun with all the tree hazards
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4 0
Martin Dewgarita
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 15 years 1600 played 95 reviews
3.50 star(s)

Fun and Challenging 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Mar 1, 2011 Played the course:once

Pros:

Amenities. Large park with a ball field, a small shelter, a bathroom, and ample parking.

Variety. A very enjoyable variety of holes, ranging from relatively open (1,16,18) 500'+ bombs to a variety of shorter technical holes requiring differing shot selection and some placement shots, a good balance of open and technical holes.

Elevation. What little elevation this park has to offer is used quite well, with some interesting pin placement and a long bomb off the top of the dike to finish off the round.

Birdie Opportunities. The good balance of distance and technical shots provide some ace runs, but typically you have to work for the birdies, and a 2 on the card was rewarding.

Beginner/Advance Friendly. The long/short tee pads are set up well that it's quite challenging from the longs and a beginner wouldn't be overly frustrated by playing the shorts, would be a great place to learn the game and work on improving shots.

Tees. Dual concrete tee pads were mostly level and in good shape.

Local Scene. Appears to be quite a few locals that enjoy this course, a weekly league and an occasional tournament.

Scenery. A nice mostly wooded park feels quite secluded for being so near the city.

Access. The first 2 holes play along the entrance ramp to the freeway, can't get much easier to access than that.

Cons:

Navigation. I had to do some wandering around to find the correct tee pads, I'll attempt to clear some of that up: Hole 1 long tee pad is very near the entrance to the park. Hole 2 is then up towards the fence, hole 2 basket is a sharp dogleg into the woods. Hole 4 basket is a dogleg left (the basket straight ahead is #15, remember that). Hole 5 basket is straight ahead past and to the right of #15. #10 long tee is in the woods. #12 is a dogleg left into the woods. Hole 14 is not the basket you can see from the tee (you already played to that basket), it is much shorter on top of a small hill to the left. #16 is tucked into the woods after a long open fairway, keep your eye out for it it's easy to go past.

Signage. Upkeep must not be a priority for this park, many of the tee signs are missing, those that do exist have distance, hole # and a map of the hole, typically if there was a sign it could be found at the short tee. More updated signage would eliminate some of the confusion. Some directional signage would also be helpful.

Map/Scorecard. An empty box that said scorecards existed, I don't know if this is ever filled any more.

Dangerous parking. It seems that most DGers park near the shelter, that's where I parked, even a good throw off the long pad of hole 1 could come dangerously close to these vehicles, park at your own risk I guess, or higher up in the parking lot.

Other Thoughts:

Waterloo, IA is a decent DG destination city, a good full day of disc golf is to be had here with Deerwood being near the top of my list of courses to hit in the area (if you only have time for one course, you can't miss Exchange).
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1 3
dustbuster232000
Experience: 24.4 years 30 played 10 reviews
2.00 star(s)

" Bugwood" 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Jun 18, 2010 Played the course:once

Pros:

Good Length along with a reasonable layout. Challenging while still approachable by beginners.
Portapotty on sight along with shelter beside softball feild.

Cons:

Heavily bug infested, large amounts of poison ivy. No map available and course signs missing or damaged. Swampy after rain and overgrown rough. Parking is for the diamond and if a game is on you will have to walk from the road.

Other Thoughts:

Its sad that this course was quickly forgotten after being installed. Tried to contact Evansdale City hall by email about a map and received no response, not even to say there wasn't one. with a little TLC this could be brought back but with out it the course will quickly fade into a trash filled, bug infested, mud hole.
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3 1
xharkx
Experience: 15.6 years 13 played 5 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Deerwood local review 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 20, 2009 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Pro and Am tees. The pro tees are concrete and newer. This course makes you think before your shots as there are multiple ways to approach almost every hole. Good variety of distance. If you enjoy wooded courses most of the holes are in the woods. Gas station within walking distance (about two city blocks) for refreshments.

Cons:

Am tees are short and uneven in some spots. Missing signing. Some of the pro tees are hard to find for first time players. Bums like to tip over the trash cans looking for cans and leave everything strewn about. Also watch out for the bugs. Spray is a must and I always wear either shorts with knee socks or long pants. There is poison ivy. I play there ALL the time and only got it once when I just wore shorts. No bathrooms.

Other Thoughts:

This next spring I plan on getting pictures and hole info up here.
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3 1
Swisher Streets
Experience: 20.5 years 85 played 6 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Challenge Awaits 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Sep 22, 2009 Played the course:once

Pros:

- Great Length
- Pro and Am tees
- Never Crowded
- Good mix of woods and open holes
- Neutral hyzer / anhyzer holes

Cons:

- Not good for beginners
- Very frustrating at times
- Tee boxes aren't the best ( rough on top, very slick if its rained recently)
- After first few holes tee signs only say distance. Can be hard to locate basket from tees.
-BUGS BUGS BUGS. Bring bugspray!
-Poison ivy all over. Wear jeans

Other Thoughts:

Worth giving a shot if you're from the area. If you are looking for a single course in waterloo area definitely go to Exchange
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2 3
Pinto
Experience: 21.5 years 11 played 11 reviews
2.50 star(s)

2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Nov 4, 2008 Played the course:once

Pros:

I liked the mix of long and short holes and it had the right amount of obstacles for challenge.

Cons:

The course was heavily infested with bugs. Even with spray, it was difficult keeping them off of you. There also seemed to be a little weedy/dirty. Crummy parking.
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